Matthew Vickery

Matthew Vickery is an independent multimedia journalist based in the Middle East with a focus on the Levant and Iraq. Vickery has extensively covered the Palestine/Israel conflict on the ground, and has been published by numerous media outlets in the US, Europe and the Middle East. He holds a Master of Arts, Research Masters, and is a graduate of Qasid Arabic Institute. Follow Matthew on Twitter: @MMVickery

ISIS advances on the Christian towns of northern Iraq have birthed a new militia of Christians arming themselves for battle as the Assyrian Political Party vows to protect and take back Christian towns from Iraq’s latest threat.

TEL SKUF, Iraq --- Waesh Toma sits upright and ready, his eyes scanning the Iraqi desert horizon as the cream Toyota pick-up he is perched in – half camouflaged into the sandy background – rumbles along. Toma is a displaced Iraqi Christian, forced from his home when Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militants advanced on his town in

DOHUK, Iraq --- Maheza Hadida sits cross-legged on the rough concrete floor, her youngest son cradled in her arms, two toddlers tucked in at each side, and a makeshift cot assembled from mismatched pieces of discarded wood beside her.
Her children are without their father -- he was captured by the ISIS when the group invaded

ERBIL, Iraq --- Iraq is in the midst of a refugee crisis. With ISIS militants having taken over swathes of the Levant and establishing a caliphate from Raqqa, Syria, through to Mosul, Iraq, over one million Iraqis have found themselves seeking refuge from the marauding militants.
The front lines are fluid in Iraq, but the chaos

ERBIL, Iraq --- The Khazir refugee camp was bursting at its seams early last week. Over 5,000 people had sought refuge there, with around 20 new families turned away every day. The crowded camp was hastily set up in the aftermath of ISIS ' sweeping victory over Mosul at the start of June and the sudden exodus of residents from the

BETHLEHEM, Occupied West Bank --- The floors of the Ramallah Government Hospital were covered in blood on Thursday, as a steady stream of people injured in the largest protest to hit the West Bank in decades arrived for treatment.
Exposed to the nearly three weeks of Israeli shelling from land, sea and air that has ripped entire

BETHLEHEM, occupied Palestinian territories --- Farah Baker is familiar with the sound of bombings. At 16, Farah can easily pinpoint the difference between an F-16 missile overhead and a naval warship’s rocket. After all, she’s been hearing them all her life.
Farah lives in the besieged Gaza City, right behind Al-Shifa Hospital,

Palestinians fear similar revenge attacks by Jewish Israeli extremists, particularly in light of prominent figures in Israel’s religious, social and political circles espousing rhetoric that openly appears to back such attacks against Palestinians.

SHUFAT, Jerusalem -- Around two thousand mourners crowded the main street of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shufat on Friday to pay their respects to 17-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir, who was abducted and killed in a suspected pricetag attack early Wednesday morning.
Khdeir's body was found badly burned in a forest two days